Image: The Amity Affliction Live [Bryan Reinsch, @iknowimlatesorry]
Almost exactly a year ago, The Amity Affliction were seen live in Germany as part of Parkway Drive’s support lineup. At the time, it was their first tour on the European continent without Ahren Stringer, who had been dismissed from the band at the beginning of 2025. Instead of looking for a replacement, the three remaining members, Joel Birch, Jonathan Reeves and Dan Brown, took over vocal duties. In the summer, longtime drummer Joe Longobardi also left the band, but the Australians didn’t let that bring them down either. Now the band have returned for their own headline tour, bringing some serious support along with them. With Silent Planet, Varials and Orthodox on the bill, the lineup offers a support package that means business. Naturally, we didn’t want to miss the spectacle and headed to Wiesbaden for the first stop of the tour.
Orthodox & Varials
US metalcore band Orthodox have been making waves in the scene for 15 years. Anyone familiar with their music knows that there’s no time for messing around here — they hit you hard right from the start. Despite the early 6 p.m. start on Friday evening, the Schlachthof was already pretty packed. Orthodox delivered a 30-minute live set before it was time for the second act of the evening shortly after.
Varials were having just as much fun as Orthodox. Anyone who has seen the band live before knows that you can easily come out of the pit absolutely drenched in sweat. And it was with exactly that kind of vibe that they launched into their set at Wiesbaden’s Schlachthof. Despite a few sound issues, Varials also managed to win over the crowd. Both opening acts certainly gained a few new fans that night, while those who were already fans were given another reason to be impressed.
Silent Planet
With Silent Planet, the tour has a special guest that fits the headliner musically extremely well. The California-based metalcore band have been around since 2009, although they have had to deal with a few lineup changes along the way. Of the original lineup, only vocalist Garrett Russell remains, and he certainly lives up to the title of frontman. The band currently have four studio albums to their name, most recently Superbloom, released in 2023, followed by the split EP Bloom In Heaven with Invent, Animate in 2025. On tour with The Amity Affliction, they get 45 minutes to deliver a set featuring a solid mix of tracks from all their releases so far. The band complemented their performance with an impressive light show, subtle crowd work and plenty of energy. The audience noticed and followed along. Aside from the fans they had already brought with them, they also managed to win over the “newbies” in their community. We’re already looking forward to their next headline tour.
The Amity Affliction
The headliners of the evening took to the stage right on time, starting their set before 9 p.m. Excellent news — everyone who was no longer in their twenties was happy about that. And there were quite a few of them, including the editor writing this report, as TAA still draw heavily from their early albums. It quickly became clear that the departure of longtime bandmate Ahren Stringer hasn’t affected the quality of their live show — quite the opposite. The band sounded tight and balanced. Their European tour is primarily promoting their new album House Of Cards, which was released earlier this year. But alongside the new tracks, the band from Down Under naturally also pulled out a few classics.
The set opened with “Pittsburgh,” for example, a song from the 2014 hit album Let The Ocean Take Me. Still a fan favorite to this day, the band couldn’t have picked a better opener. “Drag The Lake” from 2018 was also a wise choice as the second song, keeping the audience in an excellent mood.
For around an hour and a half, The Amity Affliction delivered tracks from their now nine studio albums, offering a genuinely great mix of old and new material. Needless to say, the classics worked best, but the songs from House Of Cards were also sung along to loudly by the nearly sold-out crowd at the Schlachthof.
“Soak Me In Bleach” brought another hit to the set at the end, before the audience was sent off into the night. We hope everyone attending the remaining shows has just as much fun as we did! And if you’re looking to dress the part, check out the collection in our band merch section!
